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STORY: A Man Intent On Justice…
After seven years of battling for survival on a pirate ship, Kit Frazier returns to England to right a wrong and make peace with what he lost. But once in London, he finds himself unexpectedly at sea, caught in his swirling attraction to the beguiling and elusive Maddy.

A Woman Determined To Be Free…
Maddy will do anything to escape the desperate circumstances of her life, and helping her cousin Rose catch the man of her dreams seems an easy enough task—until Maddy meets the handsome pirate captain Kit. The dashing rogue has only two purposes: to rescue the boy in his care and to seduce Maddy into his bed.

A Love Without End
With each heated encounter, Kit pulls Maddy off her stated course. But when treachery threatens them all, she will have to choose between a respectable future and wicked, wonderful seduction.

REVIEW: I’ve been so eager to read this book. WICKED SEDUCTION is a sequel to WICKED SURRENDER, and I highly recommend you read the prequel first. In order for you to understand our hero and his state of mind, his life before he gets thrown onto the ship bound for colonies, you need to know who he was and what he went through. I expected Kit’s story to be good, but the story that unfolded was AMAZING!

When first we meet our hero (in WICKED SURRENDER), he’s a fun loving and adorable young man, full of love for an actress by the name of Scheherazade. He loves this woman to distraction and, against all reason and his family’s approval, means to marry her and give her the respectability she craves. Scheherazade, on the other hand, likes Kit, but is in love with his cousin Brandon, who can’t offer her marriage in spite of his feelings for her, for the simple reason that he’s already secretly married.

As their wedding approaches, Kit gets hurt, and while Scheherazade tries to help him heal, his family plots to separate the two. They manage to get Kit away from her and pronounce him dead.

It’s seven years later, and Kit’s finally ready to return to England. The first glimpse we get of him, we know this is not the same man. This Kit is someone else entirely. In place of a happy-go-lucky man, we meet a man tortured physically, as well as emotionally. Slowly, we get to know exactly what he went through in the hands of those that captured him and made him a slave. After three years as a slave, and four years of wandering aimlessly trying to heel himself, Kit is ready to face his past. He’s ready to face Sher, the only thing that kept him alive through years of torture.

Before he heads for England, he decides to get revenge on the slavers, and this is where he rescues Alex, a young man captured and bound on a slave ship. The rescue scenes were so well written and fast paced, I found myself jumping from excitement! Once Kit arrives at his cousin’s house and finds out that he refused to pay his ransom, all hell breaks loose, and that’s when he meets Maddy, his Angel.

Maddy is intrigued by the handsome pirate. When it appears that Kit and Alex have nowhere to go, she offers them a safe haven at her uncle’s home, even though she’s only the poor relation in that household. Her uncle has been relying on her heavily to keep his home and to prepare his daughter Rose for marriage. Rose is very young and spoiled, but not mean. She’s oblivious to anything that doesn’t concern her.

The scenes between Kit and Maddy are heartwarming and full of emotion. Maddy’s strength and compassion are exactly what Kit needs at this point in his life. The only thing that keeps him from fully committing to Maddy is his fear of hurting her when he’s in one of his post traumatic ‘fits’. Maddy understands this, but she’s helpless as time is running out on her stay with her Uncle, who’s proposed she becomes his mistress after Rose marries. Rose, however, has plans of her own for our hero. She aims to marry the fierce pirate and is scheming to that end.

There are so many well-written scenes in this book that I’m hard pressed to choose one; but the one in which Kit comes face-to-face with Scher will stay with me awhile (and I quote):

“Kit found his footing, but his world was teetering out of control. His vision wasn’t even clear as the lawn seemed to bob and weave before him. He was sinking in an ocean of emotions as wave after wave of fury swamped his consciousness. Never before had he come face-to-face with all he’d lost.

‘Kit!’ It was Maddy’s voice, a single high note of worry, but it did little to beat back the tide.

He thought he’d dealt with everything that had happened. He thought he’d come to accept his lot in life, but now he saw so clearly what had been stolen from him. It wasn’t that he wanted Scheherazade. As a woman, she was little more than a memory for him. But her life, her children, her obvious joy in all that surrounded her- that is what he’d lost the day his bastard cousin had thrown him onto a boat.

‘That boy,’ he rasped as he stumbled in the direction of the back house door. ‘He should have been mine. This life!’ He spun wildly, trying to indicate the house, the grounds, the joy he saw in every line of Scher’s pregnant body. This life was mine!'”

That scene was worth the wait. I literally read this book holding my breath while witnessing Kit’s struggle to overcome the horrors of his captivity.

There’s not a thing that I didn’t like about WICKED SEDUCTION, and there’s a lot to recommend it. All the characters, secondary included, were very vivid, extremely well-developed, and the romance full of tender moments. I liked the interaction between Kit and Maddy, and I would be remiss not to mention the love scenes!

WICKED SEDUCTION is one book that you won’t be able to put down ‘till you’re done.

Mellie Smithson is trapped in the country with no suitors and no prospects on the horizon except, perhaps, the exasperating—although admittedly handsome—guest of her father. She’s looking for any excuse to go to London to meet more eligible men.

Trevor has a problem
Trevor Anaedsley’s grandfather has cut off his funds until such time as he gets engaged. Trevor escapes to the country—ostensibly to visit his old tutor Mr. Smithson but actually to duck his creditors—where he meets Smithson’s lovely daughter Mellie. The obvious solution is suddenly before him—but the lady has ideas of her own, and Trevor’s going to have to measure up…

The sentiment was echoed all around until Mellie actively hated them all. Not just the crowd, but the two combatants. Trevor and Ronnie, fighting like boys in the school yard. Bloody and violent, to be sure, especially since they were grown men. But no one was likely to die. Which is when Trevor stepped in a hole.

He cried out in surprise and pain. Thank God he was wearing boots, otherwise his leg might have snapped in two. As it was, he tumbled down into the mud and Ronnie clearly meant to finish the fight. But he hadn’t reckoned on Melinda. She’d been an unwilling participant in this whole disgusting display. Well, if her cousin wanted a Cheltenham tragedy, she would bloody well give him one.

She surged forward. “Stop it! Ronnie, stop it now!” And when he didn’t hear her, she said the words she’d never thought she’d utter in her entire life. “My love!”

That got his attention. “Mellie!”

She flung herself forward, sliding in the mud to stop right beside Trevor’s head. Ronnie reached for her, but she pushed him away as she wrapped herself around the fallen lord. “My love, are you alive? Oh God, someone fetch a doctor!”

Trevor’s face was a battered mess, but not so unrecognizable that she didn’t see the gleam of appreciation in his eyes or the mischievous smile that pulled at his swollen lip.

“Are you an angel?” he asked. “Have I died?”

The man was lying in the mud, his ankle nearly snapped in half. His face oozed from a myriad of cuts, and yet he still had the wherewithall to give the crowd a good show. It was enough to make her contemplate dropping him in the mud.

Meanwhile, Ronnie just stood there poised, his fist still raised as he gaped. “I won. This was an affaire d’honor.”

“Congratulations,” she mocked. “You beat a man half your weight.”

“I’m not that small,” muttered Trevor.

“Shut up. I’m making a point.” Then she turned her attention to her cousin. “You were right, Ronnie. You have made everything clear. I could never love a brute like you. I love Trevor.”

“Since when?”

Since never. She had a thorough disgust of them both. Especially as Trevor began to speak in a quavering voice.

“Oh, to finally hear those words, now in the moments before I expire. Kiss me, my love. Mayhap your love will keep me tethered to this mortal coil.”

“I will not,” she said between clenched teeth.

He pitched his voice to a plaintive wail. “Then I shall die for sure!”

Damnation on all bloody, arrogant, ridiculous men! One glance about her showed that the crowd was hanging on his every word. She didn’t really care until she looked at Ronnie’s face. He wasn’t stupid. He could see that Trevor wasn’t really hurt. It wouldn’t take him long to remember that she’d never spoken of Trevor with anything but disdain. And from there it was a small step to realizing that this entire display was a sham. So she had to do something quickly. Something that he’d never forget, even if he did suspect the lie.

She kissed Trevor.

She more than kissed him. She lifted him in her arms and gave him the kind of scorching kiss that every woman dreamed she’d receive from the grandson of a duke. And he-horrible roué that he was-wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her right back.

And he kept kissing her, with tongue and teeth and a growl of hunger so wonderful that she hated him even more. Even as she lost all thought to propriety in this very public place.

AUTHOR BIO: A USA Today Bestseller, JADE LEE has been scripting love stories since she first picked up a set of paper dolls. Ball gowns and rakish lords caught her attention early (thank you Georgette Heyer), and her fascination with the Regency began. And as a Taurus, she lives to pit a headstrong woman against a tortured hero just to watch them butt heads on the way to true love. Flesh wounds are rare, but the healing and laughter are real.

Now an author of more than 30 romance novels, she finally gets to set these couples in the best girl-heaven of all: a Bridal Salon! This way she gets to live out all her wedding fantasies, one by one. (Let’s be honest, what girl has only one idea for her dream wedding?) For more on the Bridal Favors series, visit Jade’s social media links. And don’t forget Jade’s other name, KATHY LYONS. That’s Jade’s lighter, contemporary side. She writes for Harlequin Blaze merging hawt sex and funny relationships into really great reads.

Mellie Smithson is trapped in the country with no suitors and no prospects on the horizon except, perhaps, the exasperating—although admittedly handsome—guest of her father. She’s looking for any excuse to go to London to meet more eligible men.

Trevor has a problem…

Trevor Anaedsley’s grandfather has cut off his funds until such time as he gets engaged. Trevor escapes to the country—ostensibly to visit his old tutor, Mr. Smithson, but actually to duck his creditors—where he meets Smithson’s lovely daughter, Mellie. The obvious solution is suddenly before him—but the lady has ideas of her own, and Trevor’s going to have to measure up…

REVIEW: Here come Rakes and Rogues, a brand new series from one of my favorite authors, Jade Lee.

I can’t tell you how welcome this story was to my Jade-ed [pun intended] palate! From the first paragraph I knew this was going to be one fun read and I was right.

When you put a handsome hero as charming, smart and a bit naïve together with an outspoken, highly intelligent and unique woman, you can always expect sparks to fly, and that’s what these two bring to this story.

My favorite part of this story, besides the wonderful characterization of the main characters, was the dialogue. It was filled with wit and humor that had me laughing out loud.

I honestly dreaded the end because I so much enjoyed the unfolding of the romance.

Once more Jade Lee delivers on all three “P”points that are a must for me, besides the characterization: plot, pace and passion. She really knows how to marry the sweet with sensual, leaving me satiated at the end of the story.

I’m eagerly looking forward to reading this series and hope you’ll join me.